$6.9 million will build a new Gig Harbor Senior Center with a fitness center, library
It reminds him of “Cheers.” You know, the classic ‘80s sitcom?
When Dan Hope walks into the senior center at Peninsula Lutheran Church in Gig Harbor, he feels like Norm Peterson, walking down the cozy steps of a gathering place where everyone knows his name.
“You walk in and it’s a place where you feel you belong and people understand you,” Hope said. “It warms your heart, really.”
Hope, 75, from Fox Island, is a member of the Gig Harbor Senior Center. The center, or what he calls a social club, is planning to build a new facility for the active seniors of Gig Harbor.
After three years of workshops and meetings, the center is now in the site planning and design phases, according to the Greater Gig Harbor Foundation, who is leading the project.
It will be on the corner of 36th Street Northwest and Point Fosdick Drive. The location was picked for its easy access to state Route 16 and its proximity to the Gig Harbor Library, grocery stores, medical services and restaurants.
It’s planned to be a 8,792-square-foot building, with a fitness center, library, commercial kitchen and an outdoor area with a patio, lawn and gardens. A presentation about the project on the center’s website says they’re looking at “completion within three years.”
The Greater Gig Harbor Foundation took over and renamed the senior center after it was uprooted in 2019 from its original location at the Boys and Girls Club, where Pioneer Elementary now stands.
Since, the senior center has rented out the fellowship hall at Peninsula Lutheran Church, though the space isn’t truly theirs, Hope said.
“The nice thing about the [new] center, is you’re going to have so many more possibilities,” Hope said. “You can set things up and not have to tear them down.”
The new building is projected to cost $6.9 million. Funding is coming from gifts, grants, and private donations from foundations, donors and fundraising, according to the Greater Gig Harbor Foundation. The center plans to rent out space in the new building for events as a major projected source of income.
For Hope and other members, the most critical aspect of the center is having a place to socialize.
In the conceptual drawings, the center’s largest space is just that. There’s a room where members can come together to play games, enjoy meals with each other and talk.
“The problems you come here with are problems that everybody here has gone through,” Hope said in an interview Wednesday, Sept. 6. “Everybody’s got a story, that’s the part that is fascinating, they’ve got incredible stories.”
A third of adults in the greater Gig Harbor and Key Peninsula areas are 60 years or older, according to the Greater Gig Harbor Foundation. Yet, there is no permanent facility for the senior center.
“There aren’t many communities our size that don’t have something,” said Julie Gustanski, CEO of the Greater Gig Harbor Foundation. “This community has had a historic deficiency in not having a place for seniors to go and spend time with [people their age].”
Most current members live alone, Hope said.
“Having a place where active seniors can get out and enjoy time with their peers is as important as children spending time with their friends,” Gustanski said.
The senior center program director, Joyce Schultz, said the most important thing for seniors is socialization, nutrition and recreation.
“Coming together, interacting and talking was always number one with everybody,” Hope said.
The current center is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Thursday for active, mobile seniors age 60 and up. Membership is $50 annually. The center holds recreational activities like tai chi and bean bag baseball at separate locations.
At the new building, all activities will be held in one area, Gustanski said.
More information about the center’s programs and activities can be found at gigharborfoundation.org/ghsc.
